Chapter 6: Dagobah

Luke looked back at the sight of his half submerged X-Wing and sighed. Coming to a swamp filled planet was bad enough without crashing his ship into a stagnant pond. He surveyed the fighter to get a good idea of the situation. His lower engines were submerged, making it virtually impossible to fire them up. The repulsorlifts were also underwater so they weren't going to do any good either. It was going to be virtually impossible to get the ship out of the pond without another craft with more lift than the transport Mara brought. Luke shook his head and began to turn to walk toward where he thought he sensed Mara. Before he could turn around, R2 beeped a query to him. "No, R2. Stay there. I'm going to go find where Mara landed."

"I wouldn't worry about that." Luke turned around to see Mara trudging her way across the swampy ground toward him. Mara caught sight of Luke's submerged X-Wing over his shoulder and started to laugh. "Aren't you supposed to be some sort of ace fighter pilot?" Luke have her an indignant glare for her comment and Mara quickly stopped laughing hoping not to insult him too much.

"My scopes went dead. I couldn't see a thing. I suppose you managed a perfect landing."

Mara gave Luke a satisfied smirk. "As a matter of fact, I managed to land without any trouble in a clearing about 500 meters due east of here."

Luke ran his fingers through his hair and looked at his waterlogged fighter again before sighing once more. "I don't suppose I'm ever going to here the end of this am I?"

Mara's face turned into a bright smile. "Not on your life." She motioned her head in the direction of the clearing in which she had landed. "Come on. Let's go back to my ship. We can set up camp there."

Luke exited the transport carrying a metal crate and walked over to the camp they were setting up. "This is the last of the supplies. Ben's still sleeping in the co-pilot's seat." Luke put down the crate in an open spot next to two other similar crates and looked around at the dark swamp surrounding them. "Are you sure you want to set up camp out here? This place gives me the creeps."

Mara gave Luke an exasperated look. "For the last time, the shuttle is too cramped. You can barely fit two people in there, much less three." Luke turned to face his fiancée's glare and wordlessly threw up his hands in surrender. Mara smirked at his gesture and pointed to the now unloaded crates. "Now, let's get this camp set up and then we can start looking for this Yoda."

Luke opened up a crate containing survival gear and rations and started to sift through it. He stopped for a moment and looked out over the swamp again before turning in Mara's direction. "You know. There's something familiar about this place. It's like something out of a dream or…I don't know. Maybe I'm just going crazy."

Mara put down the parts for the tent she was starting to set up and came over to Luke. She took his hand in hers in a reassuring gesture and looked him in the eyes. "You are not going insane. We're supposed to be here. I know it."

Luke gave her a smile. "Alright. You win. Although this is sure a strange place to find a Jedi Master. But I still feel like…I don't know"

"Feel like what?" Mara and Luke quickly whipped around to see a short green creature with large ears dressed in raggedly clothes standing on a large rock at the edge of the camp looking at them. Both quickly drew their blaster pistols from their sides and trained them on the creature.

Luke gave the creature a hard look and spoke with a stern voice to let it know he was serious. "Like we're being watched."

The creature puts up his arms to cover his face, cowering away from the drawn weapons. He spoke quickly and nervously to the two humans in front of him. "Away put your weapons. I mean you no harm."

After a moment's hesitation, Luke put his pistol back in his holster. Mara kept her blaster out, however. Luke put his hand on her extended arm, motioning for her to lower the weapon. "Mara, it's ok. He won't harm us. I can feel it." Mara slowly lowered her weapon, but kept it in her hand, eyeing the troll-like creature suspiciously.

Sensing that danger had passed, the creature lowered his arms to reveal a wrinkled, age worn face. Hi voice was laced with curiosity as he spoke. "I am wondering. Why are you here?"

Luke regarded the creature suspiciously, but reasoned that no harm would come from just talking to him. He may even know something. "We're looking for someone."

The creature's face brightened and he let out a laugh as he spoke. "Looking? Found someone you have. Hmm."

Luke slowly responded "Right" as he tried his hardest not to laugh at the creature's odd behavior.

The creature turned his focus from Luke to Mara who was looking at the troll like he was crazy. "Help you I can. Yes. Hmmm?"

Mara gave the troll an icy glare. Something about his gaze look made her feel uncomfortable and vulnerable and she didn't like it. "We don't need your help. We're looking for a great warrior."

The troll made his way off the rock he was standing on. He laughed as he walked towards them, leaning on a twisted branch for support. "Great warrior? Wars not make one great." He looked at Mara for a moment and she finally put her blaster back in her holster.

At this, the creature made its way over to the crate Luke had opened. He opened a tray inside the crate and removed one of the ration bars. Mara gave Luke a wide-eyed look and went for her blaster again as Luke stepped over and took the tray of food from his hand. The creature took a bite of the ration bar and spat it out, throwing the remainder over his shoulder. "How you get so big eating food of this kind?"

The creature continued to rifle through the crate, frustrating Luke. "Would you get out of there? We're going to need this if we're going to last in this slimy mud hole."

The creature looked at Luke, incensed. "Mud hole? Slimy? My home this is."

Luke ignored the troll's protests and closed the crate before turning back to the creature. "Could you move along little fellow. We've got a lot of work to do."

"No. No, no. Stay and help you I will. Find your friend."

Luke was fed up with the creature's odd behavior and could tell Mara was feeling the same way. His voice was rough when he spoke, hoping it would get the point across to their uninvited guest. "We're not looking for a friend. We came looking for a Jedi Master."

The troll's ears perked up at Luke's statement. "Jedi Master? Yoda. You seek Yoda."

Luke's eyes grew wide as Mara's jaw dropped. Mara was the first to speak again, her voice laced with disbelief. "You know him?"

The creature's mouth formed a smirk as he looked at her. "Take you to him, I will. But first, we eat. Come. Good food. Come." The creature turned and made his way out of the camp, motioning for them to follow him.

As the troll made his way into the swamp, Luke turned to Mara. "He's telling the truth. And if he knows where Yoda is, we should go with him. I'll go get Ben."

Mara shook her head as Luke made his way into the shuttle to retrieve his son and muttered "Naïve farmboy." She looked over at R2-D2 charging his batteries at the edge of the camp as she stepped into the swamp to follow the creature. "R2, stay and watch over the camp." Her request was met by frantic beeps and whistles.

Luke carried his tired son in his arms as he walked along the damp path towards. He was quickly growing frustrated with dealing with the single-minded focus of the creature that was leading them. "I'm sure your cooking is delicious. I just don't understand why we can't see Yoda now."

The creature just continued laughing as he walked toward their destination. "Patience. For the Jedi, it is time to eat as well." The troll glanced over his shoulder at Luke. "Tell me, why wish you to become Jedi?"

Luke took a moment to consider his response. "Mostly because of my father I guess."

The creature paused in his steps and turned his head to look at Luke. "Yes, father. Powerful Jedi was he. Powerful Jedi."

Luke's patience finally wore out at this point and he let his frustration get the best of him. "How could you know my father? You don't even know who I am. I don't even know what we're doing here. We're wasting our time!"

Luke threw up one arm up in the air, keeping his other arm wrapped around his son and turned to leave, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. He turned around to find Mara looking right at him. "Luke, wait. I think I know what's going on here." Luke gave her a skeptical look, but Mara continued anyway. She wasn't going to be deterred by her thick headed fiancé. "Do you remember how I told you I had heard the Emperor speak of Yoda?" Luke nodded but retained his skeptical expression. "He constantly referred to him as that damned Jedi troll. At the time, I thought he meant it strictly as an insult." She turned to look at their guide, now leaning on his cane, watching their conversation. "But now, I'm not so sure."

Luke's eyes went wide for a moment before his face turned cynical one again. "Are you trying to say…no way." Mara gaze Luke an icy glare to let him know what she thought of him dismissing her idea.

She turned her focus to the creature who sat silent throughout their exchange and crouched down to meet him at eye level. "You're Yoda, aren't you?"

The troll's ears perked up at her statement. He remained silent for a moment before his small mouth curved into a smile. "Hmm. Clever you are. Yoda I am."

The group finished the trek to Yoda's hut in silence. Once they finished their journey, Luke set Ben down on the small bed Yoda indicated. The child quickly fell back asleep, exhausted by the excitement of the last few days. Luke turned around to find Mara continuing to give him the cold shoulder.

"Mara. I'm sorry. But you have to admit, it did sound crazy."

Mara glared at his sorry excuse for an apology. "As crazy as the idea that you were visited by the spirit of a dead Jedi on Hoth?" Mara snapped in response. "Trust goes both ways, Luke."

Luke turned his head to the ceiling, bumping his head on the roof of Yoda's hut. He rubbed his sore head before looking at Mara with contrite eyes. "I see your point. I really am sorry."

Mara crossed her arms over her chest, debating whether to move on or make him suffer a little longer for not believing her in the first place.

Yoda turned away from the bickering couple and spoke toward the wall. "I cannot train them. They have no patience."

"They will learn patience." Luke and Mara both turned to look in the direction of the disembodied voice they heard.

Luke turned whispered to his fiancé with a wide eyed expression on his face. "That's what I heard on Hoth." Mara just nodded dumbly.

Yoda continued his conversation with the spirit without regard to his audience. "Much anger in him, like his father."

Obi-Wan's spirit countered the old Jedi's argument in an even tone. "Was I any different when you taught me?"

Yoda turned to face the two Jedi hopefuls who had dropped their argument to pay attention to the surreal discussion. "They are not ready."

Luke adamantantly protested Yoda's assessment. "I am ready. We are ready. Ben, tell him. We can be Jedi. Ben!" Luke once again hit his head on the roof of the hut when he rose due to his excitement.

Yoda grunted in response to his plea before speaking to Luke as if he was a child that needed to be reprimanded. "Ready, are you? What know you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained!" Yoda's tone leveled out and became more serious when he continued. "A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind."

Yoda pointed his gimer stick at Luke. "This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away...to the future, to the horizon." Yoda shook his stick at Luke to emphasize his point "Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing. Hmph. Adventure. Heh! Excitement. Heh! A Jedi craves not these things. You are reckless!"

Obi-Wan replied simply to Yoda's assessment of the young Jedi hopeful. "So was I, if you'll remember."

Yoda turned his attention to Mara, poking her in the shin with his gimer stick. An irritated expression flashed over Mara's face and she would have lunged for the old Jedi Master is she wasn't restrained by Luke. Yoda just surveyed her with an even gaze. "And this one. Her temper she does not control. Touched by the Dark Side she is. Spent too long in the shadow of the Emperor did she. Hmph. Trust she does not. Dangerous it is to train her."

Without waiting for a response, Yoda turned his attention to the sleeping form in the next room. "And the child. Too much of his parents I sense in him."

Obi-Wan's voice could be heard once more still countering the old Jedi's arguments in an even tone. "Is that necessarily a bad thing?"

Yoda wrinkled his brow at his former pupil's comment. The old Jedi Master's voice seemed to lose a bit of its edge when he turned back to the couple in front of him and spoke again. "Too old. Yes. They are too old to begin the training." He waved his stick to make it clear he meant all of them.

Mara was shocked at his statement. "But Ben is only two years old!"

Yoda brushed her off and turned his attention to the stew he was preparing in a pot behind him. "He is too attached."

Luke raised his hand to stop Mara from speaking, wanting to try a new direction. "But Master Yoda, we've already learned so much."

Yoda released a sigh and posed a question to Obi-Wan as he turned to face Luke again. "Will they finish what they begin?"

Luke responded on his own behalf, speaking confidently. "I won't fail you. We won't fail you."

Yoda lowered his head in contemplation. The child he could teach easily. He would enjoy again having a young one to teach the ways of the Force during his remaining time. But the parents…there was much danger in training them. They were already set in their ways and their attachment to each other and their son could lead to another failure. The risk was great, but the reward…if the responded to the training, they could be among the most powerful Jedi the galaxy had ever seen. He glance at Luke. The boy was their best hope and time was against him. The Dark Side had already held sway for too long. The last Jedi Master leveled a gaze at the anxious young couple before him. "Very well. The first of the new Jedi you will be."